Goldcrest AM-80

Goldcrest

A small European bird of the genus Regulus.

Stella Polaris, a yacht acquired by the Navy 27 October 1940, was classified a minesweeper; designated AM-78 on 2 November 1940, and named Goldcrest 14 November 1940. However, she was reclassified a coastal yacht 23 November 1940, redesignated PYc 4, and renamed Agate 19 December 1940.

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(AM 80: dp.400;1.122'6";b.23';dr.11;s.11k.;a.13")

The first Goldcrest (AM-80), a steel merchant trawler built as Shawmut in 1928 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass., was acquired by the Navy from the Massachusetts Trawling Co. of Boston; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard 15 May 1941, Lt. Conrad H. Koopman in command.

Following shakedown training at Mine Warfare School, Yorktown, VA., Goldcrest arrived New York 10 August 1942 to base at Staten Island while serving as an inshore patrol and NROTC cadet schoolship under the 3d Naval District, On 24 August, she became flagship of Division 1 of the Inshore Patrol Force. In Sandy Hook Bay, N.J., while on patrol 11 March 1943, she sank by gunfire three mines that had drifted from defensive minefields. On 29 March, she assisted a damaged merchantman off Staten Island.

Her patrol and schoolship duties continued until 5 August ]945 when she transferred to Charleston for minesweeping duty. She decommissioned 12 December 1945 and was sold 20 June 1946 to her former owner.